Let This Go Prologue: Kings And Queens

A couple of weeks had passed, and Nic Angel had begun to get into the swing of being the counter culture's superhero, defending those who were overlooked and overbeaten by the society who they only wanted to accept them. Nic Angel soon became famous as the man who knew no fear and alongside Sheetah and Smartz, he was regarded as the leader of the people, the fighter for the common man, no not the common. He was the savior of the different. He protected those who were outcasted by a society who strived to be a utopia. He fought for those who had sadness in their eyes, and battled to bring a piece of happiness back into their souls. He was going to be the hero that Gun Man had inspired him to be.
One day, he was sitting on the couch with his short legs stretched out flipping channels back and forth from the Funny Papers to ESPN, where he was watching himself win the Xtreme Olympics. His thoughts drifted off as he tried to wrap his head around being a revered hover boarder around the world and a loved superhero in his own backyard. He thought he was important before, but now, he realized he was a big deal. Just as his already large head was filling up with hot air, his phone had rung beside him. Still learning how to use his new, more technological phone, it took him a while before he answered the phone. "Hello?" He said questioningly, still unsure about who had just called him. But as soon as he heard the voice on the other end, he knew exactly who it was.
"Wasaam, superstar!?"
Nic Angel laughed lightly to himself, "Hey wassup man? How's the tour going? I see you guys on tv all the time. It looks like y'all having fun out there."
"Hell yeah, man. I just been chillin', writin, rappin', you know the deal."
Nic laughed into Brody's ear. "Hell yeah, that sounds cool."
"It is kinda. Just nice to be away from all the superhero stuff ya' know."
"Yeah."
Brody laughed, "What you saying yeah for? From what I hear you not only a whiz on the hover board, but you also be keeping everybody from the hood safe. You got everybody talking about Lucky Brand No. 7, and I was talking to my lil' patna, and I was like who is this character y'all talking about? He started describing you and he told me to watch TV and look out for this dude who could out hover board anyone and that's the dude. Come to find out my homie was talking about you. Crazy world, ain't it."
"Yeah, you know it, but hey who told you who I was? I was kind of hoping that would stay a secret."
Nic could hear Brody putting his hand up, telling him to pause. "Yoooo, chill out. I know dude who saw y'all. He an E-v too ya heard me. That's my dog Whiz Kid. He bout as smart as Smartz but he like weed to much to do somethin' wit' it. I told bruh bruh that he could be anything he wanted to be, but he ain't hearing it. Or he wasn't anyway. He ain't had no hope for the future for people like us. He knew the chances of people like us making it were slim to none dog. He seen me do it with his own eyes. Watched me go from selling drugs to super stardom, and I told him anything you want you could get it, it just takes hard work and dedication on your part." While Brody talked, Nic tried to imagine Brody selling drugs and talking to a younger Whiz. "He just couldn't see my point of view until he saw you. You sparked a flame, dog. He ain't never seen anybody just really give back to the hood like you did homie. Yeah, some people volunteer, try to feed hungry chil'ren and whatever, but the only thing Whiz knew was watching over the little ones who be off in that skate park. When the polices destroyed it in an attempt to destroy y'all, he said he really lost hope. He was like why try if the polices could just come and destroy everything he loved, but when he saw you willing to risk your life, your identity, he was like, I gotta work with dude. I don't know how I could contribute, but I want to do my part. He asked me to ask you if you needed any help homie."
Nic sat open mouthed, looking into the phone. He been getting these feelings that he had truly found the right path he was supposed to take, but to hear this from the person who had set him up on the right path, it was like God opening up your chest and shining a single ray of sunlight into his chest. "Did he really say that?"
Brody smiled, "I wouldn't lie bout nothing like that homie."
Nic was touched. "Well I wouldn't want to put someone's life in danger, but if he feel he could handle it, I'm sure we could place him on the roster."
"Hell yeah, I'm finna call him nah, and tell him the good news. I'm sure he gonna be lovin' that one, ha bruh."
Nic smiled, "Hell yeah!"
"So how does it feel to be inspiring people, dog!? You came a long way since that rooftop."
Nic felt like this was the perfect time to try and convince him to come back to the hero business while Brody was praising his name."Yeah, but I wouldn't have jumped off that roof at all if it wasn't for you, man. When you coming back to jump off some more roofs with me? Beat up some more baddies?" Nic could hear the hesitation over the phone. Even if he said no, Nic knew Brody had been thinking about it.
"I don't know bout all that, dog. I kinda got used to chillin'."
"Used to chilling? How could you chill after that speech, man."
"What you mean, homie," Brody asked confused.
"I mean you just got through telling me how much I inspired somebody. You just told me that I'm doing good in Nashville, and the only person I have to thank for that is you. Do you remember what you told on that rooftop? How you couldn't ever just leave your people down below while you seek sanctuary? You remember that?" Brody remembered it all too well, but hearing it come from Nic made him feel as though Nic were trying to trick him into something he truly didn't know if he could do. "A lot is going on around here. The police aren't just after E-vs no more. They're killing everything and me, Smartz, and Sheetah..."
"Who?"
"Sheetah."
Brody thought for a second as he recalled her dodging tranquilizer darts and bullets, attempting to claw at his friends. He remembered how, as Hit Man, he almost executed her, just like he had done with his uncle and just like he did with the rest of the Zoo Crew and he thought to himself, "How could you guys expect me work with somebody whom I've tried to kill?" Always the one to voice how he truly felt about something, he said exactly what was in his mind. "Didn't I just try to kill her a couple months back?"
"Yeah turns out she's not that bad actually. She softened up ol' Smartz. They both get along great, I get along good wit' her, she's really cool. After finding out her dad was killed in the fight, she decided to be one of the bad guys."
That phrase hit a nerve ending that caused him to jump out of the plastic seat. "Hold up, and y'all believed that?"
Nic shrugged his shoulders, "I mean she seems genuine. She fought with me when the police destroyed the skate park, was the first to jump into action to save them kids, and she knows exactly who we are, but even with all of that, she became a part of the crime fighting family. She's just trying to embrace her destiny like someone told me to do a while back."
"I ain't gon' lie, I don't trust it homie. I just don't. You say her pa was a part of the Zoo Crew?"
"Yeah."
"Well, I killed all of them so do you happen to know which one of em was her daddy?"
Nic sat and thought for a while before revealing to Brody, "I actually don't. When it comes to things of that nature, she talks more with Smartz than me. I do know she had an uncle who was a police officer, but that's all I know."
Sounding irritated, Brody responded, "Whatever dude. I just think it's suspect to trust somebody who a couple of months ago I just killed all of her friends. Seems kinda funny to me, but whatever. To each his own."
"Whatever, I think you're just scared. Either that or jealous. Maybe even both."
Nic had received Brody's full attention now. He sat completely erect and with a scowl on his face, he asked with a dark voice, "What you talkin' bout homie?"
Nic smiled, knowing his mental manipulation had worked. He knew he had Brody's undivided attention now, and he knew every word he said beyond this point would be absorbed. "I mean look at you, you're hiding. You may think that no one is noticing, but we all do, your people, the police, the renegade E-vs, we all know that the once fearless, inspirational Gun Man wouldn't shoot the wings off of a fly, and they reacting to it. They don't come in packs like they used to. No, now they come in waves, knowing that when there was once six seemingly all powerful defenders of Nashville, now there's only three. And the only reason we even have a third is because a former villain decided she was going to join the cause after everybody else left, so yeah, I trust her, because when you all left, she stayed. I think you're jealous because you wish you could say that you would've stayed and I think you're scared to come back because you would have to face leaving without a reason."
Brody placed his hand over his face to contain the rage boiling in his pupils, but it was at that moment he realized that Nic was right about some of the things he had said, but at the same time he was ignorant to Brody's situation. All he could say was, "You right, love. I am scared."
Nic didn't expect for him to just come out and say it. "What are you afraid of?"
Brody simply said, "Myself," and hung up the phone.
Nic looked at the phone confused, while Brody planted his face into his hands, trying desperately not to shed the tears growing hot inside of his tear ducts. The only memory that kept replaying in his head was the one where he had the pistol pointed at his sister's evil scowl, and the only thing he could see were two monsters, her being the lesser of two evils.



"I just want to be left alone," Brody thought to himself as he looked at Kylie trying to reach him though his phone. He was in an unshakable daze. The tour was over. His bank account had grown exponentially, but for some reason, he just wasn't happy. He couldn't get the thought of what Nic had said out of his head.
He walked down a New Orleans street smoking a blunt with his thoughts swirling. He felt the eyes of the natives on his back, wondering who he was, but he just couldn't shift his thoughts to the outside world. He was caught inside of a whirlwind of confusion and dismay. Had he made the wrong decision? Had he truly let fear contain the good he could do with his power? He knew the answers were complicated. He knew it was deeper than simply not wanting to fight the good fight anymore.
He thought about that faithful night where he watched the Evil Virus take over his body. He watched his veins turn black and his skin boil and scab apart as he reached out for his son with watery eyes. Until then, Brody had never seen someone go through the tortuous process of dying. He'd seen dead bodies, even had people he knew pass away, but to see his father with black blood and dark red mucus pouring from a crater in his chest the size of a Styrofoam plate. It was like watching dark spirits leave his body in the most horrific ways, but it was his eyes that told Brody the story of how much pain his father had truly been going through. His eyes were spotting black and red dots as blood rushed to the whites in his eyes. His irises were growing a deep red ring around the dark browns. It was like watching a man scream out to God with no voice escaping from his throat. It was pure unadulterated torture. And then he died.
Then it was Bailey's turn, but with her, it was different. The Evil Virus took over her differently than it had with her father. Instead of hideous wounds appearing all over her body, her once short hair grew long and luxurious. Her aura grew brighter and brighter. The shines in her eyes shone brighter than two suns and her rays were set upon her brother. He felt his blood boiling under his skin. His epidermis was on fire. Yet in still he couldn't take his eyes off of her, even when he realized that something was wrong. He saw her teeth become razor sharp knives that looked like they could puncture brick walls. Small, dark batwings exited out of her back as she inched closer and closer to her brother. Brody remembered how large his eyes grew as he thought a beautiful demon was after him. He wanted to fend it off, but with no weapon in sight, he knew the end was near. At first he thought he held his hand out in defense, but then when he looked at his hand, he found the most beautiful chrome Beretta he had ever laid his eyes on resting in his hand. His eyes were glued on the pistol as she crawled closer and closer to him, her breathing dripping seductively off of her tongue. When she was finally an inch away from him, her whisper knocked him out of his trance. "Kill me."
Brody shook out of his trance, and his eyes fell back on hers as he whispered, "What!?"
"Kill me."
It was then he saw the pain in her eyes. He knew the Evil Virus was killing her softly, and a tear came to his eye. The nerves in his hand twitched, his pupils dilated, and it was the first time he had ever became Hit Man and it became necessary to kill somebody he loved.
When he woke out of his dreams, he found himself in the Uptown District, Louisiana's largest and most notorious projects. He didn't have any fear in his heart though. He looked around seeing Sleepless dealing drugs, he saw Gab selling the Jezebels, and not a single iota of fear pumped through his heart. It was then he realized that he didn't fear anything since that day. He was already a monster. It was just deciding on what kind of monster he was going to be. Was he going to be the kind of monster that promoted destruction? The kind of monster who helped quell the chaos erupting around the world? Or was he going to be the worst kind of monster? The monster that did nothing.



While he was in the middle of that thought, he looked up, throwing the roach of the blunt aside, and he saw a group of heavily armored policemen gripping their assault rifles mocking the Sleepless who stood on the corner. The police officers' voices were intoxicated with rage as one of the officers pointed their rifles at the chest of one of the Sleepless and fired. The rest of the Sleepless just stood there with fear gripping their hearts, knowing they were next. "E-v trash!" That's all Brody heard. What he saw was something from the 1960's Civil Rights Movement in modern day 2090. He realized that something wasn't right about the way these E-v were being treated. Sure they may have sold drugs, but that's something he couldn't assume either. He didn't see anything that would make the E-v a threat to society, especially for the officers who stood in front of them. It was a classic example of bigotry against the human beings and the E-v. Brody asked himself how it was that he and people like him were infected by the Evil Virus when it was clear to see who the real evil men were. But he didn't have the time to answer the question in his mind. He watched the act of bigotry turn into an execution as the officers made the E-v fall to their knees, one by one killing the poor souls who knelt before them. Brody couldn't watch this occur anymore. Before he knew it, he acted, not as Brody, not even as Gun Man, but as the infamous Hit Man. When Brody saw the tailored black blazer covering his arms and the beautiful chrome Beretta in his hand, he knew that whatever the outcome of this was, that it was necessary.
Two innocent E-vs had died before Hit Man and his beautiful pistols found a place in front of two surprised officers. Even through the their helmets, he could see the surprised expressions on their faces. The fact that his android eyes offered him x-ray vision helped him to confirm their wide eyed expressions. They found a new target in Hit Man, but the two officers who had pistols in their chest didn't have the time to react to their new situation. Before they had time to blink one more time, they found two of the most beautiful bullets screaming through their armored vests and implanting themselves inside of the officer's chest. The other three officers took a couple steps back and tried to catch a bead on their new target. They soon found out that Hit Man was not the kind of E-v they had been dealing with. They weren't dealing with an E-v who knelt down in front of them. They were facing a monster who knew his own kind and would have no problem ending a corrupted souls life. They were not facing Martin Luther King Jr. They were fighting Malcolm X and he would have justice by any means necessary.
The officers soon found out how quick Hit Man was. They pulled their rifles on Hit Man only to find that he was gone, leaving the E-vs to question if they just seen an avenging ghost of justice and destruction. Then they seen the dragon on the intricate dragon on the barrel of one of Hit Man's pistols slide silently beside the scared officers ear. The last thing the officer heard sounded like a whisper as the silenced bullet ripped through the officer's helmet, ran through his thoughts, and jetted out of the other ear, finding a home in one of the bricks outside of the project walls. The officers turned around to see their comrade of corruption fall to his knees and then face forward to the ground. They looked at each other, then to Hit Man and when they saw his large, pretty smile and his demonic, black android eyes glowing with pleasure, they knew they were in trouble.
They drew their rifles, but before they could lift their rifles chest level, Hit Man rose his pistols eye level, whispered, "Goodbye," and sent a bullet in between each of the officer's eyes. They fell to their knees at the exact same time, then face forward like their comrade.
Hit Man wanted to walk over their bodies and send a complimentary bullet into their bodies, but he thought to himself that even though his bullet supply was unlimited, it still would have been a waste of ammunition. Hit Man didn't believe in wasted bullets in already dead opponents, especially if it didn't serve a purpose.
Hit Man walked toward the remaining E-vs, and saw the fear increase in their eyes with every step he took toward them. They looked at him like he was a monster, and in essence he was. He just had to remember what kind of monster he was. He extended his hand out toward the closest E-v and asked him with a soft EMS voice, "Are you okay?"
The E-v looked at him suspiciously, wondering if he could trust the man he had just witnessed murder five police officers as though it were nothing. Then he quickly came to the realization that the immaculate young man that stood in front of him had just saved his life. He grabbed his hand and Hit Man easily lifted the bigger man to his feet. The big E-v sized Hit Man and decided right then and there that this man was an angel of mercy and an angel of death. "Yeah, I'm alright. My two dogs ain't but I'm good, love."
The other two E-vs stood on their feet and walked to their friend's side. They looked at their dead friends' bodies lying on the ground and a tear dropped from their faces. "Damn fall, they got Mason, dog. Straight blues'd him."
The other one shook his head and replied, "They stole Mack and Trevon too."
They wiped tears away from their eyes and continued to look at the blood leak from their friends' bodies. Hit Man saw the despair on their faces, and he knee he had to become the rock they could lean on. He spoke with a quiet, death filled voice, "Do not cry for your friends, love. Just remember that when you lose a friend to an unjust country in a corrupt war where it's us against them, realize they are better off than us." He looked up to the sky and smiled. "Simply because they're free." He looked at the young men and made a promise to them. "I promise one day I will make a difference for people like us. One day we will become citizens of this nation and not just victims of a cruel society." His eyes were full of conviction as he stared at them for a second. He heard the cry of more police sirens approaching and he knew that trouble was approaching with the sirens. "You three better get out of here." They nodded their heads already knowing that when the police found five officers dead in the projects,it was about to be a real hot autumn, but to them it was all worth it, just to see one time corrupt police officers get a taste of their own medicine.